Chapter 167 of 189 · 226 words · ~1 min read

CI.

ON THE BURIAL OF HIS BROTHER.

Faring thro' many a folk and plowing many a sea-plain These sad funeral-rites (Brother!) to deal thee I come, So wi' the latest boons to the dead bestowed I may gift thee, And I may vainly address ashes that answer have none, Sithence of thee, very thee, to deprive me Fortune behested, 5 Woe for thee, Brother forlore! Cruelly severed fro' me. * * * * Yet in the meanwhile now what olden usage of forbears Brings as the boons that befit mournfullest funeral rites, Thine be these gifts which flow with tear-flood shed by thy brother, And, for ever and aye (Brother!) all hail and farewell. 10

Through many a folk and through many waters borne, I am come, brother, to thy sad grave, that I may give the last gifts to the dead, and may vainly speak to thy mute ashes, since fortune hath borne from me thyself. Ah, hapless brother, heavily snatched from me. * * * But now these gifts, which of yore, in manner ancestral handed down, are the sad gifts to the grave, accept thou, drenched with a brother's tears, and for ever, brother, hail! for ever, adieu!

Si quicquam tacito conmissumst fido ab amico, Cuius sit penitus nota fides animi, Meque esse invenies illorum iure sacratum, Corneli, et factum me esse puta Harpocratem.